Red Sox Journal: Morales, Lester to pitch in Cleveland

The Red Sox set their rotation for the remainder of the series in Cleveland, with Franklin Morales set to pitch Saturday and Jon Lester slated for Sunday’s series finale.

TIM BRITTON

CLEVELAND — The Red Sox set their rotation for the remainder of the series in Cleveland, with Franklin Morales set to pitch Saturday and Jon Lester slated for Sunday’s series finale.

Morales last pitched on Sunday against the Twins, meaning he’ll start with an extra day of rest. Lester will pitch on regular rest Sunday, with Aaron Cook getting extra time between starts. Cook will start in Baltimore, although Valentine has not specified when.

With Boston increasingly committed to having Morales in the rotation, Cook may be the pitcher on the outside looking in — even though his 4.70 ERA this season is better than that of either Josh Beckett (4.97) or Lester (5.36). Morales has a 3.06 ERA in six starts this season.

Looking ahead to next week’s critical series with the Orioles and Yankees, it appears Cook, Beckett and Felix Doubront will oppose Baltimore while Clay Buchholz, Morales and Lester will face New York.

As for Beckett, Valentine reported no issues for the starter after Wednesday’s loss. Beckett was tagged for eight runs in five-plus innings by the Rangers.

The manager said he and his staff met to discuss Beckett before the game, eventually pinning some of his Wednesday struggles on the long layoff between starts.

“A lot of times after he has a long rest, he doesn’t quite have his touch and then the next time he does,” manager Bobby Valentine said. “Hoping that’s the case.”

Indeed, Beckett’s three worst starts of the year — in April in Detroit, in May versus Cleveland and on Wednesday against Texas — have all come with at least seven days off. His ERA in five such starts this year is 10.13; in his 14 other starts, it’s 3.62.

He bounced back well from those two previous disasters. After getting shelled by the Tigers, Beckett allowed a run in eight innings against the Rays in the home opener. Following the debacle with the Indians, he shut the Mariners out over seven innings with a season-high nine strikeouts.

Ortiz nears return

David Ortiz is still in line for a possible return to the Red Sox as soon as Sunday, Valentine said.

Ortiz was scheduled for agility drills on the field in Cleveland on Thursday along with batting practice. If all went well, Ortiz could run the bases on Friday.

“Then we should know where he really is,” Valentine said.

Asked whether Ortiz was still on schedule to return Sunday, as the designated hitter said earlier in the week, the manager responded, “I could see that. Maybe. That’d be on schedule with what they talk about.”

There is at least light at the end of the tunnel now for Ortiz, who has been out since injuring his Achilles on July 16. Boston is 9-13 in 22 games without its slugger, who leads the American League in OPS.

Since Ortiz has gone down, the Red Sox are averaging 4.6 runs with a .310 on-base percentage. Before his injury, the team averaged an even five runs per game with a .330 on-base percentage.

Pedroia as DH

With Ortiz still on the shelf with his Achilles strain, Dustin Pedroia made his first-ever start at designated hitter on Thursday night.

“While David’s not here, to make the best use of that opportunity is prudent at this time,” Valentine said.

The Red Sox have cycled the DH around in Ortiz’s absence, with Cody Ross receiving nine starts there in the 22 games Ortiz has missed. Pedro Ciriaco has started at DH five times while catchers Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ryan Lavarnway have combined for five more.

Valentine said Pedroia looked like he could use a little bit of a break a few days ago, and that the decision to rest him defensively on Thursday was “just catching up on it.”

Pedroia has been hot at the plate the last four games, with seven hits in 16 at-bats, including three doubles.

Pedroia has never started at DH. He started five games at shortstop for the Red Sox during his rookie season in 2006. Every game since then, however, he’s played at second base.

His lone at-bat as a DH came in 2007, when he doubled as a pinch-hitter for Ortiz.

Sketching the bullpen

Valentine said Thursday that he was still working out the framework for a bullpen that has been in flux this month.

The Boston bullpen had pretty much settled into a status quo where each reliever knew his particular role. But an injury to Scott Atchison in mid-July, the exchange of Matt Albers for Craig Breslow, the shifting back and forth of Morales between the rotation and bullpen and now an injury to Vicente Padilla have altered that balance.

“It’s been a little different mix out there since Breslow’s gotten here,” Valentine said. “Albers was an inning-plus right-hander replaced by an inning or a little less left-hander.”

Valentine, though, is confident Junichi Tazawa and Mark Melancon can fill in that seventh-inning or innings-eater role that Albers had taken over after Atchison went down. Atchison himself might be back before the end of the season from his elbow injury.

Tazawa has been impressive all season in the majors, with a 1.37 ERA in 14 games. Melancon, meanwhile, has struggled over the last three weeks, with a 10.80 ERA in his last 81/3 innings.

Since coming over to Boston from Arizona, Breslow has gotten his fair share of the workload, appearing in five games and allowing one earned run.